1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the identification of owners (including administrators) of objects and devices on an IP (Internet Protocol) network.
2. Background of the Invention
As networks have grown in size, capacity, and complexity, the number of TCP/IP network interfaces on objects and devices attached to IP networks has become quite large. Moreover, a device may have multiple network interfaces. It is not unusual to have as many as three quarters of a million to a million or more devices and objects on a network. Moreover, due to normal failures in processes and lapses in attention to detail, a truly comprehensive listing of devices and objects on the network may be unavailable.
One solution to enumerating and inventorying the many devices and objects is a tool that “crawls” a network and attempts to identify devices and objects on the network. However, merely identifying an object and its object type, with its IP address, is not sufficient to completely identify the object, its type, and its owner or administrator.
The task of completely identifying network objects and devices requires databases. As a general rule these databases are generally incomplete and of poor quality, with missing objects and devices and incomplete information. Error rates as high as fifty five percent have been encountered.
Thus, a need exists for an application to locate and communicate with these network objects and devices. These objects and devices typically exist in an environment where they may be identified by, at most, a subset of such logical properties and attributes as IP address, host name, device characteristics, and object attributes. More particularly, a need exists to identify network objects by a device discovery tool, typically an intelligent device discovery tool, and then to identify the owner, administrator, or responsible user of the network object, and to accomplish this without a wall to wall inventory and physical inventories in wiring closets.